and israel has shown remarkable restraint but now what israel has done is to capitated the military command of hamas and it attacked the missile storage spots and that's what they've done so far the next step is up to hamas unfortunately i'm told by the i.d.f. in the last twenty four hours two hundred forty five missiles have been launched that israel so if they continue to do that i'm sure there will be additional attacks up to and including a ground assault if that's the only way for israel to defend itself ok norman where do you came in on this i mean another ground assault you've written a book about the last one. i don't think there will be a ground assault with i do think it's true that it's pretty similar in the build up to what happened in two thousand and eight two thousand and nine back then israel was worried about what it called the parents capacity means its ability to terrorize people in the region after the defeat it suffered in two thousand and six by the party of god that has eleven and now israel has been suffering one foreign relations debacle after another first

hear israel or says documents all. going on israeli territory but how many israelis have been killed how many israelis have been killed sitting here right now how bad is that he said one hundred and twenty palestinians let's have a listen was he being killed in the last week. ok greg go ahead because it's a weekend here on i want to be fair gemma's and doesn't want to hear it is since. ok hamas does not care about how many palestinian civilians are killed because they don't do anything in terms of building infrastructure protect they and their for israel you want to kill israeli as they really are some schoolyards. in why israel cares about civilians. still i mean it's not really been mentioned here gentlemen gentlemen nothing's been mentioned here they did the gaza strip is under siege go ahead i would still like to know which arabic newspaper reflects this absolutely ridiculous distorted version of recent history we are now being served up. secondly. is as are the claims that greg norman is making about how mass some

is that regardless of how israel may see i think at the end of the day israel's decision makers prefer a west bank palestinian authority controlled by and a gaza palestinian authority controlled by hamas rather than a unified palestinian palestinian political system i would certainly agree with that now in terms of would just like to make two observations to what really are first of all in terms of recognition and so on while he. entirely correct to say that that recognition does not yet exist there are in fact and we've just seen it in the past few days now. and there have been for a while primarily through through the egyptians negotiations between israel and hamas and direct negotiations to be sure but negotiations going on for quite some time and that appear much more serious than any talks that have taken place between between israel and the palestinian leadership. and secondly regarding how mouse's position on a two state settlement and has in fact frequently. more or less explicitly stated that it would accept a palestinian state on the nine hundred sixty seven boundaries it's a

israel is not winding down its assault on gaza. travels across the middle east and africa to mediate a cease fire the u.s. secretary of state has made it clear that israel has america's backing clinton rated her country's unwavering support for television but also called for a deescalation of the conflict in order to protect civilians but as all she's going to can report now it's not always. the crisis in the middle east probably like no other crisis reveals the double speak of u.s. foreign policy the u.s. basically gave a green light to any of their actions with regards to palestinians and israel has been taking advantage of that quite extensively because as president obama explained there is no country on earth would tolerate missiles raining down on its citizens from outside its borders makes complete sense nobody should but one may ask what about all those countries that the us has bombed iraq afghanistan pakistan yemen and others or is it that when you refer to civilian deaths as collateral damage somehow killing civilians sou

a range in the agreed cease fire israel broke the cease fire israel started this conflict greg you want to to reply. yeah i don't think that they're trying to broker a cease fire because at the same time they were the ones who started the hostilities in the first place over a week ago with over four hundred rockets that were watched before israel the side to take out. so if we look out for the beginning of the year you have one thousand two hundred rockets if you look over the last ten years you have twelve thousand rockets it's the onus of hamas to stop these attacks and that's the only reason why israel has responded in the way it started ok moving please jump in look i mean these israeli embassy. talking points and concocted sister sticks you know may may sound good when one preaching to the converted but one also has to occasionally take into account the real world the fact of the matter is this latest round began when israel shelled a group of children playing soccer on a field in the gaza strip and killed a thirteen year old boy the fact of the matter is that palestinian militants

statement on balanced against israel just as the u.s. has blocked all other palestinian related un resolutions in the past whether it was on israel continuing to build settlements on occupied territories or other initiatives put forward to ease the years long suppression of the people there by blocking all efforts of the international community to mediate a solution washington contributes to the status quo and the status quo here is that the root causes of the crisis have not been addressed and is the root causes remain any ceasefire looks temporary there was a major israeli assault on gaza four years ago to more than a thousand people did not solve the problem so one may argue the status quo almost guarantees that the cycle of violence will continue. to will continue our coverage of the blood between israel and hamas after a break. on the march under god these men and women are walking one of the longest and probably the loneliest road in the world they reenacting march into exile made by thousands of czarist russia. if i was here three

nineteen hundred hours now tonight the headlines are a cease fire ending eight days of violence between israel hamas takes hold with over one hundred sixty palestinians and five israelis killed during the bloody exchange you got the latest on that critics saying the truce is just the calm before the next storm is underlying disputes between the warring parties still remain. plus the stage is set for a truly in the bureau showdown in brussels the next budget splits the plot to coronations the money continued aid and the rich are reluctant to up their contribution. good evening i'm kevin owen franks for being with the people of garcia woken up to relative calm today a cease fire between israel and hamas reached late on wednesday seems to be holding up still eight days of violence has killed five israelis and more than one hundred sixty gaza residents but the truce had a shaky start with several rockets fired towards israel after the deal was reached paula slee is scott moore from tel aviv. some of fighting we've witnessed in years between israelis and palestinians if indeed the truce holds it wi

israel is not winding down. and more will be. speak to young. journalists from. very welcome to the program and as this conflict has taken another ugly turn we've had the opinion that an escalation in israel's military support in the aftermath of this bombing is now i know one of a number voidable will do you think. i don't think it's unavoidable i think this terrorist atrocity which was expected by security forces is something that unfortunately we need. as country would have to factor in when we fact when we confront the jihadi regime of which is using the gaza strip as a rocket base and as a base for exporting terrorism all over the region having said all of that this bombing does not have to force a ground invasion it is one factor of many and the real question behind whether there will or won't be a ground invasion is whether hamas understood that it can no longer target a million israeli civilians living in southern israel indiscriminately with rocket fire as they have been doing over the past year if there is an indication that they were understood that me

have actually struck israel. another 307 have been intercepted by israel's so-called iron dome defense system. meanwhile, israel carried out 80 strikes today. it has now targeted 1,300 sites in gaza since last wednesday ch ben wedeman is in gaza city tonight. how are civilians dealing with this conflict? the numbers are frightening. >> reporter: they're not dealing very well with it. it's a very difficult situation. you have to keep in mind, erin, that here in gaza, they don't have early warning systems. they don't have bomb shelters. they don't have an iron dome system to protect them. so, they feel very exposed. don't see a lot of people out in the street. when they do go out, they do it so very quickly. they get supplies. and really, they're just watching the television. listening to the news. awaiting to see if israel is going to go ahead with its ground incursion because as difficult as the situation is now, it will become much, much worse if israeli forces enter. probably much higher civilian casualties. as

for parts of israel? >> well, israel will receive a good deal of help from the united states. iron dome system is american technology that is made that possible. the united kingdom isn't involved in data, and i don't see any need for the united kingdom to become involved in that. israel and the united states have worked on that successfully together. >> it's now clear our from being homemade rockets that are being sent to gaza these are serious missiles that are supplied bahrain. what action is my friend taking internationally to stop the resupply from iran or anyone else to gaza so israel can feel less threatened? >> yes. my friend is right or it's clear particularly in the case of longer range rockets. these are coming from elsewhere. i mentioned earlier on involvement of iran. of course, we encourage all countries that maybe transit route for such weapons. iranian weapons will be going into syria, whether they'll be going into gaza or lebanon we encourage all countries that may be transit routes to liv

the south of israel. the israeli authorities believe they could no longer sit by and not respond to this latest round of fighting the hamas initiative. >> can you respond to what james said and also talk specifically about what you do in your most recent article, yousef munayyer? >> i think one of the biggest mistakes we make is we totally removed the situation from the context in which it is in. to describe this as a war is incorrect. if it is a war, it is a war on the people of gaza. to describe it as a war increase the impression there are two people sides in any way is really misleading. this is not an international conflict between two states. this is a domestic issue within the israeli state that it is using massive force to repress the palestinian population. if you look at the gaza strip on the map, it is this tiny strip of land in the corner of what was palestine. a 80% of the people there are not from the gaza strip. there from outside the gaza strip. they were made refugees in 1948. what you ha

in southern israel. by missiles that were launched on purpose at civilians all the israeli attacks on us military targets i mean honestly i don't know what it is i think has what israel woman has being killed dozens of children have injured and then you know as i started more of this is what happens ok you know i mean i jump in go ahead. you know but i would like to. then talks about using human shields and targeting civilians so how the current round begin there was a lull until november eighth november eighth israel with its height precision technology israel killed a palestinian child then there was retaliatory by the palestinian this is this is as usual are going to not already there wasn't all a fire down there were hundreds and hundreds of this was on fire and on fire and they're going to have to let me talk to you then you're going to have to behave let me talk you get your time when you're always going to retaliate by firing them. by firing on israeli soldiers so how israel retaliate israel where

israel does not recognize hamas, hamas does not recognize israel's right to exist. can you see a day where that changes that israel sits down with hamas or even recognizes hamas? >> well, this is really a political echelon, but i don't see the near time, a day that there will be in the near future for this type of reconciling. >> prime minister netanyahu spoke about that. what would a ground operation have looked like from that perspective? >> a lot of forces, maybe tens of thousands, going deeply into the rocket areas, where the storages are, looking for the tunnels, we have bombed something like that 140 tunnels in this current operation out of 400. so going deeply into those places, in the civilian areas, where the weaponry and the ammunition is really hidden there, this is something you can only do on ground operation ope >> do you have any type of rockets, how many they still have left? >> a small number to our estimation. >> dozens? >> yeah, even less than dozens, but keep in mind that iran will try to smuggle more rockets of this kind, since they damaged this

in why israel cares about civilians. still i mean i mentioned here gentlemen gentlemen nothing's been mentioned here they did the gaza strip is under siege go ahead i would still like to know which arabic newspaper reflects this absolutely ridiculous distorted version of recent history we are now being served up. secondly. is as are the claims that greg norman is making about how mouse somehow a justification for mass murder by israel in the gaza strip whether in two thousand and eight two thousand and nine or today or in the next round now peter you mentioned the seeds i mean there are underlying factors here there is the occupation there is that continuously deprived right of self-determination of the palestinian people and of course in more recent years there is a siege and blockade of the gaza strip that's the context what we're seeing now is a symptom of the cause rather than the cause itself. which i'd reply that greg. sure the first of all the newspaper was the second of all accusations of mass murder. you know ne

bad events in israel and gaza we could see that is that that israel has a size of a job instead of has here has been attacked by war more than one thousand five hundred rockets we can understand security concerns that's why we have a special relationship and that's why we are very concerned about the upcoming process with our decision to abstain this time we would make very clear that we support the ultimate goal of two state solution and that we would encourage everybody to come back to the negotiating table order to find a peaceful solution for both sides in order to have an israel its safe secure and safe borders and in order to have additional palestine state again safe in saved borders and hopefully prosperous more prosperous and then in the past well earlier germany was going to vote against the palestinians now you abstaining why the change of course exactly. well it has never been decided that germany would vote against it we have to coordinate already of course also was other european countries unfortunately again europe was not able to come to a common position germany worked

and israel. and then, she will then go to egypt and talk with egypt's president mohamed mursi and egypt is taking the lead in this negotiation with hamas. so u.s. believes that egypt is playing a very concrete and positive role, and so it looks like all sides are prepared to give some more time for diplomacy to be worked out. >> christiane, what's your sense of the american role in this decision to halt the ground invasion? obviously, like you said, it would have been very unseemly had it been done while hillary clinton was on the ground there. but is she going because there has been progress? or is she going because she needs to break some sort of stalema stalemate? >> well, probably to lend support, and to, you know, put the u.s. point of view, and to, as they say, look face-to-face at the counterparts and be there in the room with them. this is a very critical time. everybody in this region knows it. of course, everybody in the u.s. knows, too, that the last thing you want is to see a massive

the pressure ought not to be put on the people of israel or the government of israel. what we're seeing is publicly obama goes out and says they have the inherent right of self defense, but privately what's happening is israel israelis arg warned not to go on the ground. as you reported, they're on the edge of it. they're going to have to if they're going to stop this ultimately the pressure against israel doesn't come diplomatly. it comes by threatening to cut off the parts change for those f-f-15s and f-16s they need tour dinorder to keep their plen the air. >> nixon helped save israel when he was president by supplying israel with. >> absolutely. >> the parts they needed and the supplies they needed. >> ronald ra reagan did the same thing. inside the government of the united states. particularly at the pentagon, you can bring pressure to bear against the israeli defense forces by simply saying you know, those spare parts that you need, the maintenance chance that's got to be done on those aircraft, boy, that stuff is going to get there a little bit slower. it's happ

israel is not winding down its assault on gaza. and let's not get more perspective on the booming and the expanding frontlines in this conflict with patrick hannifin political analyst for the u.k. call him mr henning thank you very much for joining us so ordinary israelis have already shown that support for the actions of their military and. last only cement their position that. yes the last intel of eve is going to cost of fi israeli public opinion even more so than it is already but still it's not clear who is responsible completely clear who is responsible for the blast in tel aviv there has been an official group to step forward and take responsibility so the timing of it is quite interesting actually yes and where does this leave the chance of a cease fire that. well there was you know we really have to look at the larger perspective of this recent conflict with gaz and the ceasefire process was under way before this operation began and as we had baskin on your program that we could go saying that israel decided it was not in

breaks israel and. israel steals eighty percent of the water in the world spending for itself. consumption of the news really wrong that's a lie or or for our library behind somebody with some money and facts and there are . you are we all we have to familiarise to sell our implies you have to go out of there with your dollars and the flag is real down to the real world i know you can use to file their taxes nobody disputes . nobody. norman can you hold a firm to see these are in order for us in the worst. consume on not in the last second thousand are now on the wrong underground who were of an average power still near where healy. is real it's about four times the consumption. of the total power of the total border a very liberal the water supply is. still nothing. so to talk about now that's that's a lie there are still are i think there are sociological reasons and i can say or do you say in order to hold water for our flag went like. this let's go back to god there gentlemen. it's a lie ok you're i

takes israel and. israel steals eighty percent of the water in the world for itself. consumption of them is really on that's a lie or or far library law and some guy was among in fact and under cover. are you are we are we have to familiarise you so that we are implies you have to get out of there with your dollars and the flag is real down to the real world i don't know how you can use to file their taxes nobody disputes that. nobody. norman can you are from the seas are in order for us in the worst. consume are not in the last second thousand are now on the wrong underground who are of an average probably still near where healy. is real it's about four times the consumption. of the total power of the total border a very liberal the water supply is going on increase it was nothing to do with it. so to talk about the now that's that's a lie there are always a lie are our finger are sociological reasons. for what you say in order that i hold water for our flag words like. notes not a lie yes let's go ba

now the problem is that israel, it was sensed that israel's hands were tied because of their relationship with egypt. egypt was in fear that egypt would end the peace treaty. that is one reason why israel feels it's calibrating carefully the attack on gaza.poised on th of gaz yachlt they're trying this pinpointed air attacks and also attacks from the sea. they resumed the policy of targeted assassinations against hamas leaders. they want very much to end the threat from gaza. but they also do not want a ground invasion partly because of the cost and also because they don't want to alienate egypt. so this is a very dachg us ange moment for this region. >> we know that they have great familiarity with attacks on two fronts. lebanon in the past and attacks from the south. again now with the new conflict that appears to be growing between israel and the golan heights and its border in syria. is there any concern that there may be new issues on the northern front as well? >> well, there is great concern. it doesn't seem too likely at the moment. as a matter of fact, by the way, a few minutes a

of israel and israeli air strikes are the fault of the mass. so i can tell you they genuinely cheney breaks my heart you think that we want to see dead children on any side as i said we mourn every loss of life hamas on the other had a celebrating and they're putting their own civilians in danger i cannot tell you how much we desire quiet how much we desire true peace and calm in this region when we facing an enemy that is guilty of this double war crime whereby they hardly own civilians or shooting at our civilians for every decade now we are in this predicament that however with the most strategically surgical precision pinpoint strikes when they're hiding beneath their civilian population there will be collateral damage. let's get some more thoughts now an opinion on the social impact this conflict is having someone born and raised in israel joining me for that comment is political activist you're authorities actually a lot from cultures to you kate and you're a hi there i know you've been listening in the last couple of minutes. clearly isr

to pressure israel into stopping this attack the u.s. has said for its part that israel has the right to defend itself and russia are also commenting on this saying that israel's attack is a disproportionate use of force against gaza so all of this international furor erupting over this attack that may may result in a ground invasion those are the fears at the moment the latest from the southern border is the head of israel's southern command saying that this is just the beginning. of reporting right there an hour straight to gaza for us here for a reaction and an eyewitness account from an american human rights activist joke joining us live program and a big welcome to you sir nice to see you fifteen people are said to about been killed in guards or already what do we know about other casualties i understand that you've just returned from one of the hospitals in the area. yes that's correct and a number of other internationals here visited the largest hospital in the gaza strip this morning and the casualties there are mounting as you k

into israel. that was something they really wanted. and of course israel does not want to see hamas resupplied through the tunnel network. that is still to be worked out. i asked him whether or not he got weapons and whether hamas was getting weapons from iran, and he gave me a non-confirmation confirmation. it's an open secret that they come through those tunnels. so that has to be taken in hand. we're not sure how that's going to happen, but obviously there is some egyptian role in that as well. but, yes, egypt is the guarantor of this cease-fire. neither side trusts each other. and both sides are going to be able to appeal to the guarantor, egypt, the united states and other regional powers who've been helping, but the lead is egypt. and interestingly, you know, wolf, this is the first time israel's gone into an agreement with an islamist government, that is the new government of egypt. >> christiane amanpour reporting for us from cairo. thank you, christiane. we have reaction to the new cease-

israel has intensified the pounding of gaza overnight and. particularly the targeting of governmental and police buildings and biggest police station was totally leveled causing structural damage to nearby buildings some of the biggest governmental structures in gaza city were targeted including the biggest civil service building here in gaza. in the southern area of the gaza strip was targeted heavily overnight particularly the smuggling tunnels which gazans called the survival smuggling tunnels were almost totally destroyed last night and continually being pounded with helicopters an f. sixteen s they were struck over sixteen times last night israel killed three media workers short had journalists two of them a cameraman for the t.v. channel another for the educational television channel and israel has admitted that it did deliberately target these civilians according to israel these stations that these media workers work for are not legitimate journalistic enterprises and therefore susceptible to being targeted any time gazans don't expect

it's ten pm moscow time tonight egypt announces that a ceasefire between israel and hamas is to come into force an hour from now covering a desperate international push for a truce we've got the latest just ahead this comes of course despite the other israeli strikes on gaza which brought the death toll to over one hundred fifty and the terror blast in the center of tel aviv in retaliation. other top stories thousands of students hitting the streets of london crying out against rising tuition fees and a lack of financial support making it harder to get a higher education in the u.k. . plus a human rights blow for bahrain is amnesty international publishes a report showing torture and oppression getting worse said the king. good evening i'm kevin zero in thank you for choosing to see we're starting with that breaking news of just been talking about israel and palestinian group hamas have agreed to a cease fire in gaza after a marathon peace talks in egypt's capital cairo israel's been pounding the palestinian toe true with missiles from both the air and sea for more than a week now in

day seven of the israel/gaza bloodshed. hamas says there's a cease-fire agreement with israel but israeli spokesman says it is not a done deal. >> i understand they want a time-out. but if they're interested in a time-out just to regroup and come and shoot back at israelis a week from now after they've rested and replenished missile stocks we're not interested in that. >> want to go straight to wolf blitzer live in jerusalem. wolf, first of all, tell us what the state of the cease-fire is. you've been talking with israeli

israel is continuing to pound the gaza strip with airstrikes amidst fears that israel could launch a ground invasion. at least 21 palestinians have died in the most recent round of violence while three israelis died on thursday. israel said it launched 150 airstrikes overnight while palestinians fired a dozen rockets into israel. among the casualties was the 11- month-old son of a bbc arabic journalist. an associated press photo showed jihad misharawi clutching the wrapped body of his baby, who was killed by an israeli round that struck his home on wednesday. white house press secretary jay carney told reporters thursday -- speaking later thursday, mark toner said the onus is on hamas to stop the violence. >> the onus here is on hamas. as jay carney just said from the white house, it claims that the best interest of the palestinian people at heart, but through its actions, it is showing a far different agenda. >> israel has also continue to prepare for potential ground invasion of gaza by calling up thousands of army reservists. the egyptian prime minister visited the gaza strip frid

clearly throughout israel. but the fact is, you have this densely populated area and people -- civilians dying because they are living, you know, side by side in the same buildings as hamas leaders that you take out? >> that is the fault of hamas. hamas has put its fighters in the very midst of a densely populated area because they not only have a military strategy of trying to kill the maximum number of israeli citizens, they have a media strategy. they want us to fire back at them and if we injure pll civilians or -- palestinian civilians or kill them tragically, they can use that sensationalize, put the pictures on the newspaper and delegitimize us and deny us the right to defend ourselves. if we injure or god forbid kill palestinians for us that's a tragedy. if they kill israelis for them that's a victory. it's completely different set of rules for hamas and for israel. this time, we were able to reduce in this round of fighting -- the last round was in 2008 -- 2009, a higher level of civilian casualties. w

at eleven pm moscow time a tense cease fire now tonight between israel and hamas comes into effect as we speak capping a frenzied international push for a truce. becomes a spider earlier israeli strikes on gaza which brought the death toll to over one hundred fifty and a terrible loss in the center of tel aviv in retaliation. also thousands of students in the streets of london crying out against rising tuition fees and a lack of financial support making it harder to get a higher education. and a human rights blow for bahrain as amnesty international publishes a report showing torture and oppression getting worse and making. good evening and thanks for joining us if you just have one aims kevin zero in this is r t broadcasting live from moscow and a cease fire then between israel and hamas has just come into force something being hammered out during marathon negotiations hosted by egypt israel's been pounding the palestinian territory with missiles in both the air and sea for more than a week in response to hamas says cross border rockets a correspondent in tel aviv reports on the much

between gaza and israel. and including all of the militant groups inside of gaza not just hamas itself. it will take all of them to stop the rocket fire from coming over and the subsequent air strikes that israel does after it is hit. >> all right, sarah, thank you very much. a permanent solution so hard to envision how that could happen. tens of thousands of israelis were called for duty for that possible ground war. fred planken has been with the israeli forces. are they moving back from the border? >> reporter: erin, the troops are still at the border. we're not seeing the troops move away just yet. certainly we believe they're going to stay there for at least another four or five days because, of course, one of the things that the israelis are doing, especially in the next couple of hours, is they're going to be monitoring whether or not the cease-fire is actually being kept by hamas as well. what we've seen so far is there is smaller violations. one or two rockets have been fired out of gaza. the israeli

right into israel into this situation. now figure this one out"- did you catch the complexity, even with judaism? you know, the religious zionists, the religious anti-zionists, the secular nationalists, the religious secular anti-zionist zionists. it's like i don't know, it's out of monty python. yeah, go ahead. >> so if they decided that they should be two separate states, then i guess the idea is they're both fighting over the same little bit of land- they all want jerusalem or something? >> well, it's very complex, but in a nutshell, to kind of give you the overview, you know, what we have here, and this came out of the- one of the things that i really love about this profession and at least the freedom i have at western to teach, is that i can create or resurrect classes- and i wanted to know more about judaism, so i put together a semester-length class on judaism and much of this comes out. well, of course, everyone is familiar with the holocaust, but the history of the jews is just enormous irony and suffering, and i

breaking news right now from israel. this morning, israeli television is reporting that three israelis were killed in rocket strikes in the southern region of that country. this comes as the israeli military has launched an aggressive campaign to cripple hamas after repeated rocket attacks. as many as 750 this year launched from gaza into southern israel. last night president obama spoke on the phone with prime minister benjamin netanyahu acknowledging israel's right to defend itself following but also urging netanyahu to avoid civilian casualties. hours earlier the israeli government posted this video from youtube showing an air strike yesterday in gaza that killed ahmed al jabari, he is the top military member of hamas. that was a widespread campaign against hamas targets that the israeli military had said it will broaden in the coming days. this morning israeli defense forces, the idf, dropped leaflets over gaza warning residents there to stay away from hamas operatives. >>> also on twitter, a clear message from the i

and what they call quote war crimes perpetrated by israel against the palestinian people israel of course is saying that the air strikes are justified response to go rocket fire from gaza into south is for all it's worth noting that this wednesday while israel was storming gaza from air president obama was holding a news conference the president received no question about gaza and that was almost nothing on t.v. hear about it i've been watching very closely the israeli defense minister who has indicated that this could be just the beginning mr brock who broke the last this really ground attack on gaza four years ago this three week operation cast lead in which more than one thousand and one hundred palestinians and israelis were killed in the u.s. it's basically told us well whatever you do to the palestinians in gaza we're not going to polls we're not going to intervene and the usual line is the one that we heard this wednesday and that is we stand by always really partners in the right to defend themselves against terrorism but does the word terrorism in this context justify any actions

top stories marty tonight a cease fire ending eight days of violence between israel and hamas takes hold with over one hundred sixty palestinians now and six israelis killed during the bloody exchange. critics though say the truce is just the calm before the next storm is underlying disputes between the warring parties still remain. and the stage is set for a trillion euro showdown in brussels the ears next budget splits the bloc into with poorer nations divide the continued aid and the rich reluctant contribution. a very good evening it's kevin owen here at r.t. tonight's top story dade pm then the big news again of the day the people of gaza have woken up to relative calm a cease fire between israel and hamas reach late on wednesday seems to still be holding up eight days of violence those killed six israelis and more than one hundred sixty gaza residents but the truth of a shaky start to with several rockets fired towards israel after the deal was reached paula slee has the latest for you from tel aviv. in some of the fiercest fighting we witnessed in years between israelis and palest

from southern israel from hamas twenty five rockets were fired into southern israel over the night israeli anti missile defenses trying to shoot those down some of them land landing in in southern israel as well this immediate escalation in the fighting between hamas and israel came about yesterday afternoon with the targeted killing by environ airstrike of the the leader of hamas is military wing jobbery there's a bit there was a video released shortly after that of the missile striking his car and then a large scale aerial offensive. started after that over gaza loud explosions rocking all only the built up areas there about ten people reported killed including civilians there the great fear now that a ground invasion is imminent israeli sources have said that they're fully prepared to start a gun invasion if they deem it necessary and they have called up reservists possibly stuff yes and we've seen the tension escalating in the region over the past few weeks haven't we tom. we have hamas rocket attacks have been intensifying in the past couple of weeks hundreds of rockets fired from gaz

and the land of israel. [applause] mr. president, the people of israel wait for a palestinian leader in that that is willing to follow in the path -- the world waits for president abbas to speak the truth of peace that can only be achieved through negotiation by recognizing israel as a jewish state. it waits for him to tell him that he will address israel's security needs and end the conflict once and for all. he prefers symbolism over reality, as long as he refers to travel to new york for you and resolutions rather than travel to jerusalem for hope and dialogue, any hope of peace would be out of reach. israel has always extended its hand in peace and will always extend its hand for peace. when we faced an arab leader who wanted peace, we made peace. time and again, we have been met with rejection for our offers and denial of our rights and terrorism. the only thing his story about this speech how much he has ignored history. the truth is that 65 years ago today, the united nations voted to petition the bri

will hamas agree not to throw rockets into israel, which was the main demand that israel had? if you remember, unlike -- when they wanted to get rid of the hamas leadership in gaza, they never said that this time. this was not about regime change or getting rid of hamas. it was about stopping those rockets. if that happens, that will be good for israel. and for hamas, if they manage to get their leaders to be able to survive and not be able to be assassinate bid israel that, would be good, and also if they get the blockade lifted that, will be good too. that's what they wanted. hamas, of course, has emerge as diplomatically triumphant only because it's failed to be isolated as israel, other countries have wanted in the past. >> and as we have always said, by all parties, want to walk away from this claiming victory, and we'll see if that actually occurs. christian, we'll be back with you shortly. thank so much. >> still 52 minutes before the cease-fire is expected to take hold, and we'll see. i mean, we will see how this develops throughout the afternoon, whether or not this i

the sweetener was support for israel. support for israel diplomatmatically. standing beside us. upholding our right to defend ourselves in the face of hamas terror. that was very important for us. also it's important for that iron dome missile system which you saw working, anderson, and working so outstandingly, taking down about 85% to 90% of all the incoming rockets and denying hamas the opportunity to -- or the ability to strike at our 5.5 million israelis who were under rocket fire. >> we talked about this, ambassador, a few hours ago. there have now been apparently five rockets launched. a number of them intercepted. but three of them landed in southern israel. how do you see that? how seriously do you take that in terms of a violation of the cease-fire thus far? >> we assumed it would take a while for the cease-fire to take hold. i understand now it has taken hold. there hasn't been fire for a while. of course, we are not firing. there is a cease-fire, anderson. >> all right. ambassador oren, i appreciate your time tonight. thank you very much. >> thank you, anderson. >>>

that israel says militants used for communications. palestinians say the death toll in gaza has now reached more than 100. half of them are zillians.

israel is going to react to that. i think you'll see a very intense demonstration between them to cease and desist. >> gaza is not a big area. at some point they have to run out of pockets to some degree, don't they? >> yeah, but that's a big risk. so the big driver of the israeli operation right now is the long-range rockets that were allegedly supplied by iran and which hamas has been using to target major urban centers in israel like tel aviv, like jerusalem. tel aviv has been the red line for israel, and as long as hamas has been in possession of these rockets and can maintain that threat against israeli population centers, israel can't afford to sit back. so the air strikes, yes, they have been achieving some success, but hamas has still been lobbying those rockets over. we saw that today with strikes in jerusalem as well as in tel aviv, so it really comes down to that intelligence question. how many rockets does hamas have in its possession, and if hamas is able to get out of this with some rockets, that's a hug

hamas does not recognize israel, israel does not recognize hamas. this is an issue that will be sorted out once the israelis decide to have peace with the whole of the palestinian people, not only with certain factions. >> as anderson said, he's not denying that. he's just offering the viewers some clarification on the language here. >> this is not the issue right now, don. the issue right now is an israeli military campaign that are killing hundreds of people and wounding hundreds of people in the gaza strip. innocent people are paying a price for a campaign that is being carried out by a military power, the most powerful country in the middle east, and this has to come to an end. everybody has the right to defend themselves, but an occupying power trying to s subjugate an entire population to its military rule and you want to deny the people, that's absurd. >> anderson, moments ago, another explosion. let's look. >> i don't know if you can hear that. that was another quite large explosion. relatively close to where i am. i'm not sure if that was i

first assumption israel is our ally that's what comes first so if israel is fighting if there's any military. attack going on we don't talk about the fact that the israeli military is by far the strongest in the region we don't talk about the four point one billion dollars in military aid the u.s. has spent this year we only talk about israel as being the victims and that has its origins back in the cold war you know in the cold war days israel after sixty seven was seen as a great ally of the united states and it was it played a cat's paw role of representing u.s. interests in many parts of the world certainly in the middle east but not only there also as far afield as and gold and mozambique and nicaragua south africa and el salvador in all these places where israel backed up the u.s. provided arms to u.s. backed dictators etc and in that context the work of pro israeli lobbies the traditional jewish lobby the newer christian zionist lobbies all of that influence began to to join it intersected with the strategic value that israel was starting to have for the pentagon for the cong